Monday, December 29, 2014

Merry (belated) Christmas to those who celebrate - mine was crappy and I was sick, so I'm glad it's over and done with :D I did have my 3 guys here for the holiday so I'm VERY happy about that ... but I'm also glad now that hubby and DS2 have now gone back to work, and DS1 is back in his own house, LOL. I'm not used to having them home so much! I had a taste of what it's going to be like when hubby retires too soon in 8 years - I worry. I WORRY!

Because I was so sick I haven't been able to sew since my last post, but I'm finally on the mend and was able to get downstairs today to start a couple of projects :)

This is some robot fabric I picked up @ Joanns ages ago - I had enough of it left to make 2 composition book covers :)

Look closely - can you see something sneaky?

Perhaps you can see it better from the back :D The idea came to me while I was doing the quilting, and it worked out quite well! It's deliberately wonky, not centered, not perfect - I wrote out the words with a Frixion pen and then stitched each one in about 2 minutes - no worry, no fussing, no stressing. FUN! And the part I like the best is that it's not really visible unless you happen to catch a glimpse and then look closer - I think the recipients will notice it after having the books for a while, and it'll be a cute surprise!

Friday, December 19, 2014

Conquered! I bought this pattern a few days ago, and made my first one yesterday. I'll make a few minor changes the next time around (maybe a snap instead of velcro for the closure?) but it worked out pretty good for a first try - this is a great pattern (NAYY!) :D The instructions are well written, and she included a LOT of photographs in the tutorial - to me, that's the sign of a good designer. Drawings are OK, but actual photographs are more helpful, imho :D

Front view Two in One pouch - each pouch measures about 8.25"w x 4.75"tall. The overall height unfolded is 9.5".

Back view

Double zippers

More of these will be made - I won some fabrics from the November Ho Ho Ho and On We Sew linky party that would be *perfect* for this project :D Will get a picture later - right now I need to get dressed for Aquafit :D

P.S. Pattern is available here on Etsy - NAYY - I bought the pattern on my own and really like it :) The designer doesn't know me from Adam, lol.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

These were cut at the same time (with a 2" hexie template), and put in the oven at the same time.

After 6 minutes in the oven, Nelly was done (it needed a TINY bit of a flattening out) but Nikki - aiaiyaiyaiyaiyaiYAI!!!

They're supposed to be finished in under 3 minutes, and they're supposed to flatten themselves. Apparently that's not a given :D Will redo Nikki and cross my fingers, lol!

Post edit! Finally I got it right - I preheated the toaster oven for 5 minutes with the baking tile (covered with tin foil) inside - when I put this one in it was finished in 40 seconds, start to finish! Hopefully I'll remember this with the next one, lol!

Monday, December 15, 2014

First up, the project I started today for Monday Makers! #17 - this is a pattern I recently bought :) The pattern designer blogged about it here and the pattern is for sale here (NAYY!) :) Hopefully it'll be pretty ... in pink ;)

Here you go, Nurdan - my completion from MM#16 - two strawberry bags for my little neighbour girls :) They measure about 11.5" wide x 12" tall. Pretty much the only change I made in the tutorial, was to quilt the outside of the bags. Next time around I'm going to add "strawberry seed" seed beads in the quilting intersections. I'll also add a pocket or two inside, and will make the strap length adjustable :) The pattern itself is really simple - I think my little neighbours are going to LOVE it (especially since I have goodies to tuck inside) :) I did a sneak reveal in my last post without letting on that it was a reveal - did you notice? ;)

Drawstring gift bag - 14" x 18" :)

One last photo - a drawstring bag (14" x 18") I whipped up to wrap a gift for a friend - oh how I love that bird fabric from Fabricland, but alas, they haven't sold it in years! I check every year but no luck!

Drawstring gift bags - each 9.5" x 13" :) Posted originally to MM#16 :D I stitched these up then promptly packed the beaded owl zipper bags in them, to gift to my aquafitness teachers
[X] Another gift done ;)

And now, just for fun, our oldest, being a goof. He's been over to visit several times in the last few days, and as usual, has been very entertaining :D

Nick posing in long underwear (I made him take his work pants off when he got here after work, as they were filthy and I didn't want him grubbing up my furniture or carpets!!) and a new work coat - sorry about the winter yellow background - ugly!

Here he's NOT shoveling his driveway after the first huge snow of the season! Well - he shoveled most of it - then decided it was time for a beer break - he had his Blackberry in his pocket so he shot a photo and sent it to me "on the fly" :)

Not just a strawberry blonde, but a strawberry blonde strawberry hat head, LOL! I didn't ask him to do that either, but as soon as that thing went on his head, the camera came out :D I do enjoy his visits, LOL!

Monday, December 8, 2014

HAHA Santa's workshop is a hustling bustling place right now - fun fun fun! First up - a couple of pictures that relate to projects that are already completed :D Sally asked about the zipper pulls on the owl bags, and I hadn't yet taken pics of the little zipper pulls I made for the penguin bags, so here we go - pictoral updates :D

Next up - Monday Makers! #16 - and I'm ready for action! I started several projects today - all are for Christmas gifts, not surprisingly :D

This project is somewhat of a secret - at least, until I get both of them finished :D I think I may have already spilled the beans as to what it is, but I'm too lazy to check, LOL.

Close-up of the green bits :D

OOPS - talk about spilling the beans - here's the completed pink version, but you only get to see part of it :D

And here we have the makings for 2 drawstring bags - I'm using up the last of the cardinals fabric for these, and the lining is a thrift store tablecloth! It has some black blobbies on it that I've been cutting around, lol. These are the "wrap" for the owl bags - hopefully I did the size calculations right ;)

Hubby and DS2 aren't coming home tomorrow night for supper - they have a Christmas dinner @ work so I don't have to cook for them. One guess as to who's going to be sewing in the basement ;)

So who is finished their Christmas sewing/crafting/baking/preparation? If you're not, what do you still need to get done, and do you think you'll get it done in time? I seem to have things under control - it's actually kinda spooky, LOL!

Saturday, December 6, 2014

My doorbell rang today, and when I answered it, I found my little neighbour girls standing there with cards and gifts in hand ... for ME! Mom was lurking out at the end of the yard :D These are the cards they made me (the little one is about 3 or 4, and the older one is about 6 :D I make them little gifties sometimes - it's so much fun sewing for little girls!

This is from the 3 year old :D

These are the front and back covers of the card from the older one ...

and this is the inside. IT MADE ME CRY!!! :) Please note that I don't actually make them anything from yarn - it's always fabric, LOL. But if she wants to call it yarne - then yarne it is!!!!! :)

Mom told me that the older girl came up with the idea to make me a Christmas gift, on her own! They also brought me a handmade (with help, I'm sure :D) snowflake and a tin of candy - it was beyond sweet :) I've got Christmas gifts almost finished for them - one bag is done and the other one is cut out - they're girly girls so I'm pretty sure they're going to be very happy :) Will post pics when both are done - this is the tutorial I used ;)

Beading is fun - the simple kind where there's a tiny polka dot on a fabric and you stitch a bead onto it - it's how I embellished this parliament of bags ;) Hopefully you can see the beading on these - it's quite pretty, if I do say so myself :) The quilting is great too, but was hard to photograph since it matches the fabric background!

"Handmade" labels added to the lining

Close-up of the labels :)

Owl #1 - 9 3/4" x 6 1/2" - lined with the green that I used for the tab on the side :)

Here's a close-up of the beading - you should be able to see the gold beads, and the eyes are done in red beads :)

Chocolate will be tucked inside,and these two bags will be gifted to my lovely aquafitness teachers - such stern taskmasters they are ;) Just kidding - they're darling young ladies :) I made the beaded zipper pulls in different colours so the girls wouldn't get them mixed up at work :D

Thursday, December 4, 2014

I made these bags as a little Christmas gift for our oldest son's neighbours - they have 3 daughters who like to bake Christmas treats and share them with my son :) The pattern is from Stubbornly Crafty - I got it at her Etsy shop (NAYY) - I hope she comes up with some more critters because this design is CUTE! The finished size is about 9"w x 7"t :) It's not very clear in the photos in the bottom row but I did random quilting on the back of each one - wavy lines and some decorative stitches - it looks quite sweet, IIDSSM!

I made shrink plastic zipper pulls with each girl's name so when they get the gift, they can pick their favourite bag and add the personalized zipper pull. I'm going to get some pretty lip balm and tuck one in each bag, along with some chocolate. I hope they'll be pleased with their gifts :)

I was working on some bags tonight that I want to make for Christmas gifts. I decided to do some random wavy line quilting on the fabrics before adding some beads. Because I did the quilting in white thread, though, I'm not sure I'll be able to photograph it properly, so I took these pictures to see if I could capture how it looks. I caught something alright - see picture #3, lol!

Bag 1 - wrong side (front and back)

Bag 1 - right side (front and back)

Bag 2 - wrong side - front and back

Bag 2 - right side - front and back

HAHA as you can see I caught a piece of (lining) fabric while I was quilting the second bag ... and didn't notice! I'm leaving it in - it's funny :D I brought the pieces upstairs to add some gold beads for bling - will work on this tomorrow when there's some better light to see by :) Sorry about the range of background colours -- dark winter night, basement sewing room, unskilled photographer - it's a recipe for non-professional pics :D

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Here are a few finishes that have been sitting on my sewing table for either a few months, or a few days - photography isn't my strong suit and I tend to let things pile up before getting to that task!

These are recent finishes - Christmas drawstring bags. Some of these are Christmas gifts, some are to wrap Christmas gifts :D Most of them are about 13" wide x 18" tall - the dark blue ones, bottom row, are only about 9" wide. While gift bags are a great stashbuster, I don't see much of a dent in my Christmas fabrics box! ;)

More chocolate wrappers! These ones have Ferraro Rocher chocolates in them - yum :) These are self-lined, and I used up the entire half yard remnant making these :)

HAHA these are finishes from October that have been sitting around for a couple of months. They're now packed up for next year, for Blue Hills :)

Here's what I was working on last night and this morning - can you tell what they'll be? I've already made a couple of them, but that was months ago :) Will post the finish pics later, as I actually got 3 of these done :D

Monday, December 1, 2014

I'm always happy to start new projects, so here we have the beginnings of 4 more chocolate wrappers (top row), and 2 quilted zipper pouches. I think I'm going to add beads to the zipper bags - maybe use them for the eyes ... or ??? Just a few, for fun. All of these items will be Christmas gifts :)

I did get last week's starts finished - most of them, anyways! Of the 9 drawstring gift bags I prepped, I have one blue one to finish and the other 8 are done - I just need to get a picture :)

How's everybody doing with their Christmas prep? Already finished
... on schedule ... behind schedule ...
never-gonna-finish-in-this-lifetime schedule? I still have a few things to do to get ready for the big day:
* gift sewing and wrapping is almost done, and a few "side items" need to be purchased (i.e. lottery tickets)
* haven't started cards or baking
* tree isn't up, but both kids will be here Wednesday night so I'll get them to put it up for me, and to bring up the decorations
When I'm finished all that I get to relax and start working on the Toronto Maple Leafs quilt for DS1 for his birthday next month :D

About Me

Stay at home mom of 2 great boys - both of them electricians like their dad :) Hubby and I live near Toronto (Ontario), and have been married for 32 years. Both of our boys (now 29 and 27) have houses nearby, and visit the family grocery store (aka my basement storeroom) on a regular basis :D I regularly accidentally cook extra food for them to take home when they do visit, and keep a shelf stacked with household goods that they might need - they don't complain ;) Empty Nest Syndrome my a$$ - we're loving this!
On the crafty front - I sew. A lot. And shop for sewing. A lot :) And computer - a lot :) Life is fun, so SMILE, and thanks for dropping by :)